Panorama City Ca Public Facilities

Gone are the days of shooting hoops at the neighboring Sepulveda Middle School and ferrying league players back and forth for home games. With a new gymnasium tripling the size of the Sepulveda Recreation Center's indoor facilities, the center's adult and youth basketball leagues have a permanent home in a 5,000-square-foot modern building at 8825 Kester Ave.

Groundbreaking took place Monday on a two-year project to replace the old Panorama City Library with a new $4-million, state-of-the-art facility. The 12,500-square-foot structure, which will be twice as large as the one it replaces, will include an electronic library with multimedia work stations linking it to the Central Library downtown and a vast array of databases, officials said.

A dozen or so times a month, groups of elementary school pupils line up and trek to a place of wondrous adventure and learning: the Panorama City Branch Library, particularly popular for its children's services. But by the end of the year, the children, as well as thousands of other users, will have to go elsewhere. Officials plan to raze the cramped building, built in 1959, and replace it with a new facility twice the size.

It wasn't always like this, but now, the Sepulveda Recreation Center is filled most nights with members of a burgeoning youth soccer league, formed to offer relief from the crowded apartments nearby. Before play began five months ago, the most common nighttime figures on the grounds were gang members, who still peddle drugs in the shadows of the lighted fields and tennis courts, police say.

A new community group of parents from the North Hills/Panorama City area plans a march Sunday at the Sepulveda Recreation Center to protest the presence of drug dealers who they say are driving families out of the park. The North Hills Residents Coalition is "a network of mothers who are saying we are not going to let this go on in our community," said Paula Rangel, one of the event organizers.

Groundbreaking took place Monday on a two-year project to replace the old Panorama City Library with a new $4-million, state-of-the-art facility. The 12,500-square-foot structure, which will be twice as large as the one it replaces, will include an electronic library with multimedia work stations linking it to the Central Library downtown and a vast array of databases, officials said.

It wasn't always like this, but now, the Sepulveda Recreation Center is filled most nights with members of a burgeoning youth soccer league, formed to offer relief from the crowded apartments nearby. Before play began five months ago, the most common nighttime figures on the grounds were gang members, who still peddle drugs in the shadows of the lighted fields and tennis courts, police say.

Jim Leahy, a former executive with a high-tech firm, has been appointed director of the Volunteer Center of San Fernando Valley, a resource center for volunteers to nonprofit agencies. Leahy replaces Sandy Doerschlag, who has taken a position as director of the Assistance League of Southern California, which is the Panorama City center's sponsor. Leahy was manager of the center's office in Valencia for two years.

A dozen or so times a month, groups of elementary school pupils line up and trek to a place of wondrous adventure and learning: the Panorama City Branch Library, particularly popular for its children's services. But by the end of the year, the children, as well as thousands of other users, will have to go elsewhere. Officials plan to raze the cramped building, built in 1959, and replace it with a new facility twice the size.

A new community group of parents from the North Hills/Panorama City area plans a march Sunday at the Sepulveda Recreation Center to protest the presence of drug dealers who they say are driving families out of the park. The North Hills Residents Coalition is "a network of mothers who are saying we are not going to let this go on in our community," said Paula Rangel, one of the event organizers.

Gone are the days of shooting hoops at the neighboring Sepulveda Middle School and ferrying league players back and forth for home games. With a new gymnasium tripling the size of the Sepulveda Recreation Center's indoor facilities, the center's adult and youth basketball leagues have a permanent home in a 5,000-square-foot modern building at 8825 Kester Ave.

Jim Leahy, a former executive with a high-tech firm, has been appointed director of the Volunteer Center of San Fernando Valley, a resource center for volunteers to nonprofit agencies. Leahy replaces Sandy Doerschlag, who has taken a position as director of the Assistance League of Southern California, which is the Panorama City center's sponsor. Leahy was manager of the center's office in Valencia for two years.